谷辺昌央

Born in Nagoya in 1974, Masao Tanibe started guitar lessons with his father at the age of seven. After graduating from the Faculty of Literature at Tokyo University, he moved to Germany in 1999 to train at the Cologne University of Music and the University of Music Karlsruhe, where he successfully passed his Konzertexamen.
He has won numerous prizes and awards, such as first prize in the Classical Guitar Competition in 1988, the top prize in the 1995 Tokyo International Guitar Competition, first prize in the Gevelsberg International Guitar Competition in 2004, first prize in José Tomás International Guitar Festival in 2005, first prize in the 2006 Nolba Caesarina International Guitar Competition, second prize and the audience favorite award in the JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition.
Following his 2005 US debut Kennedy Center recital and a concert with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra which was broadcast on radio all over the US and Europe, he began appearing with orchestras in Europe and around the world. He has been invited to give recitals in festivals all over the world, including the “Festival of Guitars of the World” in Argentina and other festivals in Europe and Asia. His performances have been broadcast on Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Radiodifusión Argentina, Western New York Public Broadcasting et al. He performed three concertos, by Toru Takemitsu, Hikaru Hayashi and Joaquín Rodrigo in a single evening with the German Erzgebirgische Philharmonie Orchestra.
During a tour to South America, he gave the first South American performance of the guitar concerto ‘Northern Sail’ by Hikaru Hayashi in a concert which took place in Brazil to mark the centenary of Japanese immigration to that country. Since 2010, he has given annual recitals in Tokyo Opera City Omi Gakudo Concert Hall and in Munetsugu Hall in Nagoya.
. He gave a recital to mark the twentieth anniversary of the death of the composer Toru Takemitsu and has participated in NHK “Major Works” recitals. In 2013 he undertook a European tour funded by the Japan Foundation.
He has released five albums on the ALM Records label: ‘Acentuado’, ‘Oración para todos – guitar music of Latin America’, ‘Rossiniana – Opera on Guitar’, ‘Toru Takemitsu・Toshio Hosokawa: Voice and Guitar’, and ‘Folios – Toru Takemitsu Guitar Music’, all of which were awarded “Tokusenban” (editor’s choice) by the Record Geijutsu music magazine and Yomiuri Shimbun Sound Box. A ‘Japanese Guitar Concertos’ CD (concertos by Toru Takemitsu, Toshio Hosokawa and Hikaru Hayashi) was simultaneously released all over the world on the German MDG label. He was awarded the Nagoya Music Pen Club Award and the 31st Creative Arts Award from Nagoya City Cultural Promotion Agency. [as of November 2025]